PalmTreeMafia
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Posts posted by PalmTreeMafia
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I've seen White play in person twice and he can cover. No doubt about that. And, getting a 1st next year plus a 3rd this year in addition to a corner, which we probably would have taken anyway, makes a lot of sense. All picks are gambles and bad teams need as many new players as possible - trading down is a strangely rational decision coming from the Bills front office. McDermott wants character guys and guys who play well on film instead of "workout wonders" with the infamous "upside." I'm onboard.
Edit: I now see that I typed pretty much exactly what Jerry Sullivan wrote... strange for me to agree with him to this extent.
I'm ok with this new draft philosophy. Since the 21st century began, we've seen the Bills waste 1st round picks on guys like Flowers, Losman, McCargo, Maybin, and Manuel....guys that no other sane NFL GM had graded as 1st round material.
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Meh, still better than not winning at all.
Exactly. So much negativity around here lately. I COMPLETELY understand it and am guilty of a fair amount of it as well.
However, also consider that we get the privilege of drafting a top-9 player for the 5th straight time. In a now 31-team league with a distribution of >620 professional players, that is some serious concentration of young hockey talent. Kane and Okposo make a total of 7 top 9 draft picks soon to be on the 20-man roster (not counting Bogosian for obvious reasons). Before 2013, the Sabres had only drafted top 9 10 times:
1970: Perreault (#1)
1971: Martin (#5)
1972: Schoenfeld (#5)
1982: Housley (#6)
1982: Cyr (#9)
1983: Barrasso (#5)
1986: Anderson (#5)
1987: Turgeon (#1)
1996: Rasmussen (#7)
2003: Vanek (#5)
By my count, that's a 70% historical success rate for high-end top-9 hockey talent (88% for top-6), and I'd argue that we can expect an even higher probability of success at the top of the draft given modern scouting standards.
Now I fully realize that a high draft pick doesn't necessarily equal high quality, a low draft pick doesn't necessarily equal lesser quality, etc...
All I'm saying is that this is a unique time in Sabres franchise history in that we have never collected so much high-end physical hockey talent in such a short time span. And that's quite obviously because we have never truly bottomed out for any sustained period of time like we have during the past 5 seasons.
I'm excited to see what a competent GM with a coherent vision - as well as a competent HC who coaches a team based on the talent and not on a rigid system - can do with all of this young talent.
Apologies for the semi-coherent late-night rant. I was just disheartened to see so many fellow Sabres fans so indifferent to this year's draft. Even if there's no obvious McDavid/Eichel/Matthews/Laine this year, there's still a lot of high-quality talent for the taking at the top of the first round.
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I missed it originally in your first post, but Tyrod throwing over the middle? What is this amazing concept?
Point taken. I have been ambivalent about Tyrod's future as a starting NFL QB.
However, I really liked what I saw in the final Miami home game with Watkins, Woods, and Clay all healthy (enough) and on the field. He definitely spread the ball around and attacked the middle portion of the field with some confidence.
I want to give Tyrod one more year and give him another legitimate receiving weapon to complement Watkins and Clay before making a final judgment. I completely understand those who are ready to move on, but I'm not quite there yet. We've already been through 20 straight seasons of QB purgatory. I can handle one more year.
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I really like the idea of drafting OJ Howard, and not just because of his KILLER name. I think he's the only blue-chip player in the draft this year who plays offense. We can run 2 TE sets with him and Clay. He can take a lot of heat off double-teaming Watkins. He's a big target for Taylor over the middle and in the red zone. His blocking skills only help our run game, especially when on the weaker right side. After 57 years, this franchise still has never had a dominant player at the TE position. OJ would be that player.
Here's my top 10 list for the draft:
1. Garrett
2. Allen
3. Adams
4. Hooker
5. Foster
6. Thomas
7. Howard
---------division between elite and really good---------------
8. Davis
9. Lattimore
10. Williams
Update: I'm demoting Allen, dropping Foster, promoting Lattimore, and adding Derek Barnett.
1. Garrett
2. Adams
3. Hooker
4. Thomas
5. Allen
6. Lattimore
7. Barnett
8. Howard
9. Davis
10. Williams
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I voted for Norm Maciver and am hoping for a Maciver/Housley ticket.
What's really appealing about Maciver is that he has been there since the beginning of the great Kane/Toews Blackhawks dynasty that has made the playoffs 9 straight times, reached the Conference Finals for 5 of those times, and won 3 Stanley Cups. Looking back at Sabres history, you'll notice that we like to draw GM's from the great dynasties in NHL history (Imlach from the 60's Leafs, Bowman from the 70's Canadiens, Muckler from the 80's Oilers, Regier from Al Arbour's Islanders). I think this is the way to do it: promote guys who have first-hand experience building NHL franchises from the bottom to the very top and staying at the top for a sustained period of time.
Pros for Housley: high character guy, has paid his dues coaching at all levels of hockey (high school, juniors, international, NHL), has knowledge and credentials to rebuild our defense and open up our style of offense, works well with young hockey players, Sabres connection doesn't hurt.
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This is definitely my guy, though I understand the hesitation due to playing AJHL competition.
if he is the guy the Sabres target, they would have to trade down. Not worthy of top 8 pick imo
If Sabres think Samson is future 3rd line centre and not top 6 RW, then this pick could make a lot of sense. I'm not sure anyone else in organization is a shoe-in top 6 RW besides Okposo (assuming he is healthy).
Agreed. When you move every Sabre to their most natural position, our projected RW franchise depth looks like this:
1. Okposo
2. Bailey
3. Baptiste
4. Fasching
5. minor leaguers and over-the-hill vets
No one below Okposo projects to a top 6 NHL forward, and you also have to assume one of the #2-4 that I listed won't work out. So yes, RW is a need position too. I would rather use a top 9 pick on BPA rather than reach for a defenseman, and Owen Tippett happens to be a guy who could fit as both BPA and an area of need.
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Not sure if Gorges deserves to be in this category. He isn't a 18-22 minutes a night guy - although he was used that way this season because of injuries and less than stellar play by others on the backend. He is 100% the kind of guy this team needs in the locker room and on the ice (finishing checks, making it miserable on forwards in front of his net), but I think he needs to be at 14-18 minutes a game. Of course in order for that to happen GMTM needs to plug a couple holes at D. Either way Gorges isn't going anywhere this offseason unless he's part of a package deal.
Also, how does Kulikov not make this list? I still like Bogo's play more than his (although he had me scratching my head a lot more this season with some of his decisions).
Gorges deserves to be in this category because he is a terrible professional hockey player at this stage of his career, and he will be making $4 million next season. It doesn't matter if he averages 20 minutes on the ice or 16 minutes. Any time greater than 0 minutes is too much time on the ice for him. His leadership skills are also vastly overrated. All he did this season was complain about how much it sucks being on a team that sucks. Wow. Great leadership. So inspirational.
Kulikov doesn't make this list because he's an unrestricted free agent next season and is therefore no longer a salary cap concern.
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I have to disagree. There are four contracts on this team that are bad (and two of them arguably weren't when they were either traded here, or extended while here). There are far more than four bargain contracts on this team. And if you looked at every team's roster, chances are the +/- on the majority of teams is above four.
Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.
Every GM has, or will have to deal with ridding themselves of a bad contract or two in the offseason simply because nobody can predict the future. It's the nature of the cap era game.
Your opinion is suspect and lacks supporting evidence. You are going to have a difficult time defending a GM whose team is right up to the salary cap and yet finished 5th worst in the league standings. That is a very poor return-on-investment no matter how you slice it.
I'll tell you what, though: this thread was really meant to get everyone's attention, not to run Murray out of town just yet. His resume with Anaheim and Ottawa justified a chance as an NHL GM. Get 2-3 of the guys I mentioned out of here this summer, re-sign Kane, have a good 2017 draft, trade for a good d-man, make the playoffs next season...I'll go back to defending him.
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I do.
Same. Even our GM specifically called out Moulson last year.
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First of all, let's make this clear: Murray is definitely responsible for the contracts of all 4 players I called out. He gave Ennis his contract extension, and the other 3 were brought to the Sabres on Murray's watch. MAYBE I will cut Murray some slack for Moulson (who has provided some production this season, compared to last) and Ennis (2 straight horrible seasons is a long time, but who am I to judge how long he needs to recover from the Ovechkin-induced concussion?), but the contracts for Gorges and Bogosian are as inexcusable as their on-ice performances.
Next, to say we're not in cap trouble is myopic. I'm looking at next summer as much as this one. Kane, Reinhart, and Eichel all need to be kept, and Murray will need to re-sign Kane this summer if he plans on keeping him. But we also need to add 3 quality defenseman and another top 6 winger to this roster...and 1-2 of these 4 needs will probably have to be young vets via free agency/trade who will be beyond their entry-level contracts.
Finally, if you don't think the current on-ice product has any connection with the general manager's allocation of the team's financial resources, then I don't what else to tell you. Hopefully you can reason that shifting cap money to some areas of the roster prevents a GM from addressing other areas of the roster. The Sabres were at the cap ceiling this season, and it limited what Murray could do to address the horrific defense.
Yes, my panties are in a knot. Deal with it.
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These 4 players will cost the Sabres about $18 million next season. The 2017-18 salary cap is expected to be about $76 million. So basically, our brilliant GM has managed to allocate 25% of the team's cap space on 4 terrible excuses for hockey professionals who make this team worse every time they step onto the ice.
This, folks, is why we can't have nice things. By nice things, I mean a team that makes the playoffs and entertains us. Remember this thread when they try to explain why we couldn't keep all three of Eichel, Reinhart, and Kane.
As far as I'm concerned, it's time to give Murray the same level of scrutiny that we've been giving Bylsma for months.
What a disgraceful franchise. Sick of this .
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If my understanding of the draft lottery rules is correct, we can only pick 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, or 9 this year....so no 4 or 5....someone correct me if I'm wrong...
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So how do you explain the other games that they won that put them in a position to actaully control their own destiny to make the playoffs this year with 2 games remaining? They didn't make it in because Crosby missed a shot, they made it in because they have a good well coached team that is finally being built by a quality front office and coaching staff instead of a front office who wants to get lucky and win a lottery. But its all good, Murray gives 'Zero F***s', and will continue to rebuild the mess he made here while the Leafs just did what he couldn't do in a fraction of the time. If only the Sabres didn't have injuries...........
I'm beyond tired of this excuse. We better not hear it from the mouths of Dan Abysmal or the Dwight Schrute doppelganger on Monday afternoon. This team played just as bad when everyone was healthy as they did at the beginning of the year.
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The Bandits are now currently the worst team in the league.
Way to go, Terry and Kim. You are the proud owners of THREE underachieving, uninspired, unwatchable sports franchises.
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Interested to see everyone's take on who we should keep, and how we should lose the one we don't keep; expansion, trade, FA? Which player is better anyhow?
I'd like to keep Girgs and trade Larsson
I prefer Girgensons to Larsson, but I'd like to keep both for a while longer if possible. I'm also not opposed to trading either one for the help on defense that is sorely needed. I think both still have upside that a different head coach could tap into, and I definitely don't want to lose either for free in the expansion draft or through free agency.
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I really like the idea of drafting OJ Howard, and not just because of his KILLER name. I think he's the only blue-chip player in the draft this year who plays offense. We can run 2 TE sets with him and Clay. He can take a lot of heat off double-teaming Watkins. He's a big target for Taylor over the middle and in the red zone. His blocking skills only help our run game, especially when on the weaker right side. After 57 years, this franchise still has never had a dominant player at the TE position. OJ would be that player.
Here's my top 10 list for the draft:
1. Garrett
2. Allen
3. Adams
4. Hooker
5. Foster
6. Thomas
7. Howard
---------division between elite and really good---------------
8. Davis
9. Lattimore
10. Williams
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We tanked an entire year and ate a ###### sandwich for 82 games for Sam Reinhart. He's on his ELC and will be a RFA. He's not a buffoon off the ice. He's 3rd on the team in points this year. He was 3rd on the team in points last year (his rookie year).
If you call Myers for Bogosian and Kasdorf even up, we traded a house -Stafford, Armia, Lemieux, and 25th overall pick (Jack Roslovic), three former first rounders and an actual first rounder- for Evander Kane. What did that buy you? Bar time shenanigans. Oh, and a top line winger who's on pace for 32 goals on an 82 game season, hypothetically good enough to finish in the league's top 20 in scoring. He led the team in goals per game last season too, on pace for 25 goals in 82 games. And these goals don't come easy. Despite the fact we have the #1 powerplay, 24 of 27 of Kane's goals this season have come at even strength. The next highest even strength scorer on the team is Eichel with 14 goals. If you take away Kane's 27 goals, the Sabres drop to 29th in the league in goals for. If you take away Kane's 24 even strength goals, the Sabres drop to dead last in even strength goals for, and it's not even close. By the way, those four other guys: Stafford has scored 8 goals this season; Armia 10; Lemieux is dicking around in Manitoba with 19 points in 61 AHL games; and the jury's still out on Roslovic, who's shown some young promise. People think we need another Danny Briere trade in order to catapult the team. This was that trade.
Don't trade either.
But asset management is asset management. If Kane doesn't resign this offseason, he gets moved.
You clearly know more than just physics. Great post. Reinhart and Kane are both critical pieces to this new Eichel-led Sabres dynasty.
Regarding Reinhart: put him at center and watch him flourish. Eichel - Reinhart - O'Reilly - Asplund. Could be best center group in the league in a few years.
Regarding Kane: we can afford him. Remember that Gorges will be off the books in 2018. Hopefully Vegas picks up Ennis. Moulson's final year of his contract goes down in cost. Bogosian...well... it...we can still afford Kane.
Want to talk trades? How about trading Bylsma? That clown is ruining this franchise. He needs to go.
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Bumping this to the top. Anyone with any news whatsoever please post...rumors are great too...
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Kuli has had a ###### season, back messed with him a good part of it and who knows how long the concussionactually bothered him. He has looked much better lately... but with Austin and Falk showing up and Ghule coming, suddenly the D is looking big, nasty and mobile. Im ok with Risto, McCabe, Falk, Austin, Bogo and Ghule next year, though given all the injuries d guys endure, id like to see Kuli back.
Austin and Falk are decent injury call-up options, but they have no business being regular NHL top-6 guys.
I'd be perfectly happy signing Kulikov to a 1-2 year "prove-it" contract. The freak injury he sustained this year is a perfectly valid excuse for his poor performance.
Murray still needs to swing a trade for a top-4 D-man. I don't see anyone worth pursuing in free agency.
Risto, McCabe, and Guhle are fine by me. Bogo sucks, but with that contract, what can you do about it?
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Yeah, nobody is likely to hit 100. The only way it happens is if they re-enforce the rules the way they did post lock out in 2005.
Only 10 players in the league are currently averaging 1.00+ points per game (one of them being Jack Eichel), and you need to be averaging 1.20+ to hit 100. The only way I see the Sabres accomplishing this during the Eichel Era would be if Reinhart seriously steps up his game. Eichel with 40 goals and 60 assists, Reinhart with 30 goals and 70 assists, a left winger like Kane popping in 35+ goals....eh, not likely....
Regarding the topic of era naming, I prefer to define an "era" as a period marked by a rise and then a fall. And looking at the franchise's history, I see roughly 6 of them divided between these years: 1970, 1979, 1987, 1995, 2003, 2014.
The first was the Punch Imlach Era defined mostly by the French Connection. The second was the Scotty Bowman Era defined mostly by an aging roster that could just never hit elite level. The third was Gerry Meehan's rebuild that was highlighted with an offensive juggernaut line of future Hall of Famers, but it wasn't enough to get beyond the Montreals and Bostons. The fourth was characterized by Hasek and then a bunch of hard working types to fill out the rest of the roster, but was ultimately crippled by a corrupt and cheap owner who didn't care about winning a Stanley Cup. The fifth was the post-bankruptcy/post-lockout group that had the same GM, the same head coach, a similarly cheap owner, and a similar philosophy as the previous era of building around a great goaltender...but this time with smaller, faster, and ultimately mentally soft skill players.
This brings me to the sixth era which I'd say began with the "tank" for Eichel. The blueprint is bigger, tougher, younger, and elite at the center position. In my opinion, this era is merely a top-2 defenseman, a change in coaching philosophy, and a couple more years of experience away from being the best chance our beloved franchise has ever had at winning a Stanley Cup.
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Thanks for the insight. That's crazy that even they stink now. He acquired them the same time as the Sabres though and they made the finals last year so I guess it wasn't an instant flop. Were they some type of juggernaut in 2011 that simply took 5 years to fall apart? I was half joking at first but maybe he really is cursed.
The last Bandit juggernaut was in 2008 when they last won the championship. At that point, the team was mostly just a bunch of old vets while the rest of the league was beginning to move toward an up-tempo transition game that relied more on youth and speed. I think the current GM/HC at the time (Darris Kilgour) was great at what he did, but he was also a bit stubborn and behind the times. He doubled down by trading high draft picks for older established vets. This strategy seemed to no longer work in the league, and it led to his eventual firing by 2013.
My own personal assessment of the current GM (Steve Dietrich) and HC (Troy Cordingly) are that they are very good at what they do and were forced to rebuild a Bandits franchise without the usual assets that a rebuilding franchise has (Kilgour famously traded away draft picks to the point that the team didn't have a first round pick for 4 straight years - 2013 through 2016). The Bandits managed to reach the finals last year for the first time since 2008, and they did so with a nice mix of young guys, players in their prime, and older vets. They played admirably against a team that just seemed to be flat out better than the rest of the league.
I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with this year's team. Injuries have been a minor problem, but not nearly to the extent to justify getting absolutely blown out like they have been all year. Maybe the roster could use more pure shutdown defenders. There's still slightly over half a season left to get things turned around, and their second best forward (Ryan Benesch) should be coming back soon from IR.
So if I want to be fair, it's hard for me to blame Terry on any of the Bandits' current problems. If he is cursed, it could be the cosmic karma for getting rich off of destroying the Pennsylvania lands with his fracking ventures.
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GMTM said he was also trying to set the table for buying young players but that didn't happen.
Hard to say whether he tried hard enough without seeing the prices.
I also think big picture Murray sees better moves available at the draft/pre expansion.
We weren't going to get the D Man we want from the Anaheims, Minnesotas or Islanders of the league today.
I don't see how Murray is ever going to get that top-2 d-man that we need at this point. Maybe by trading one or more of our future first round picks? I really don't want to trade Kane, but maybe that's the necessary sacrifice for a top d-man.
It's a shame Murray burned through all of our post-Regier trade assets without adding any defensemen beyond Risto, McCabe, and Guhle. And so much salary cap dead wood on next season's roster: Ennis and Gorges at about $4 million, Moulson at $5, Bogosian at $5.5...unbelievable.
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I wish I was feeling more confident with regards to all this. I'm slightly nervous for what comes next. It's a big offseason for Murray.
And, unfortunately, from what he says, he seems to be on the same page as Bylsma. *shudder*
Yeah, I get the same sense that Bylsma is safe for a while longer. At least through the beginning of next season. Which is fine by me at this point. It gives me some more time to focus on my life this year rather than waste it on this sinking ship of a franchise. I've got better things to do than continue watching an overrated coach cripple the development of his talented young forwards.
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For some reason a thread got closed about the trade deadline and I had a post already typed up that I was curious about so I have to create a thread rather than google the answer for myself (screw that, I already typed this up).
To quote Rob Ray: No, you're right.
I agree with you though. He's not nefarious or anything but he really seems to have adopted the losing culture of Buffalo sports rather than reversing it so far. Sabres, Bills, and Amerks all floundering. Are the Bandits any good or did they fall off the performance cliff as well? I've never followed Lacrosse but I remember reading that they won multiple titles back when they had John Tavares' uncle or whomever. I don't know if the Bandits are better or worse since Pegula has owned them though.
Yes, the Bandits have absolutely fallen off the performance cliff this season in a way that even surpasses the Bills and Sabres (I don't follow the Amerks). The Bandits had a great season last year and made it to the finals, and pretty much the same team from last year returned intact. So on paper, they look strong.
And yet most of their 8 games played this season have followed the same pattern: show up listless and get utterly blown out for most of the game, then come back to some extent to make it look respectable, but then lose. They actually played their first complete game last weekend and followed up with a really solid trade for a lefty forward (Pat Saunders), so it's hard to say whether last weekend was an aberration or whether the first 7 games were the aberration.
In summary: yes, Terry Pegula is a Terry-bly incompetent owner and everything he touches turns to sh!t. And I doubt he's even aware that he owns the Bandits, which could ultimately work in their favor...
2017 NHL Draft -- General NHL Thread
in The Aud Club
Posted
So who are the top-8 worthy defensemen? Makar, Heiskanen, Liljegren...anyone else?
And which of the 7 teams ahead of us are in danger of picking a defenseman?